


Soft Served Smiles

by c0cunt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Ice Cream Parlors, M/M, shiro is a rainbow sprinkles kind of guy okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 19:33:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8069944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: Pidge wanted to go to the cursed Carvel and get ice cream - one of their friends from the Garrison had just been employed there, and that friend is exactly Shiro's type.





	

**Author's Note:**

> based off of the prompt "You’re an employee and I have a crush on you so when you hand me the soft serve I accidentally grab it by the ice cream instead of the cone"

   Pidge had, for some unfathomable reason, wanted ice cream.  And not just the ice cream that the Holt family stocked in their freezer.  No, Pidge wanted ice cream from the cursed Carvel shop around the corner.  (The shop wasn’t actually cursed - at least Shiro was pretty sure it wasn’t cursed - but it made it easier to distinguish from the other two Carvels in the area.)  Apparently a friend from one of their advanced physics classes at the Garrison had gotten a job there, and it wasn’t like Matt or Shiro could deny the little pigeon anything.  So the three of them made the quick walk over in the boiling heat, Shiro tugging his long sleeved shirt down a bit further whenever a car drove past them with a grimace.

   By the time they made it from the Holt’s house to the cursed Carvel, Shiro felt like he was dripping in sweat.  The humidity just made things worse, especially for Shiro’s right arm.  Dull pain throbbed throughout his arm, and he rubbed at the prosthetic, as if that would help.  He was no longer paying attention to whatever Pidge and Matt were talking about, leaning against the door to hold it open for them.  For whatever reason, the interior of the shop was almost as warm as outside, and Shiro bent over slightly to wipe his forehead on the bottom of his shirt, as he followed his friends inside.

   Shiro nearly bumped into the two tiny tables set at the front of the shop, frowning slightly at them.  Why the shop insisted on having the tables (when they could barely even fit a pair of chairs to go with them) in the front of the shop was beyond his understanding.  Shiro could hear Pidge chatting animatedly, as he stuck his head into the waist-high freezer along the left wall, poking at the packaging of push-up pops in his boredom, before knocking into Matt’s shoulder.  Matt shoved him back, and Shiro would’ve knocked him back, if he didn’t actually catch sight of the guy at the counter that Pidge was easily talking to.

   He was large, in every sense of the word, practically dwarfing the counter and Pidge as he leaned down against the ice cream case.  HIs warm, dark brown skin popped against the blue of his shirt, and he was nodding slowly as Pidge continued on with...Shiro wasn’t even sure if they were speaking English anymore.  The guy behind the counter smiled, warm and inviting as his eyes twinkled, and he let out a small huff of laughter as he stood up straighter, as he realized that Pidge hadn’t come in alone to shoot the shit with him.

   “Ah, sorry about that!  Welcome to Carvel, how may I help you?”  He asked, and Shiro could see the name tag that seemed so small against the man’s chest.   _ Hunk. _  Well, his name was definitely fitting, Shiro felt, as Pidge dragged him and Matt forward for introductions.

   “Hunk, this is my older brother, Matt, and our buddy Shiro.  You remember the friend I told you about that made a geiger counter in like, ten minutes out of scraps?”  Pidge paused, waiting for Matt and Shiro to nod, before proudly presenting their friend, who smiled awkwardly and waved at them.  So not only was Hunk attractive, but intelligent to boot, and Shiro pointedly ignored the smug looks that Pidge and Matt were discreetly sending his way.  Okay, so Shiro  _ did _ have a type, and Pidge’s friend was most definitely his type; still, that didn’t warrant the looks he was getting, especially as Hunk offered one of his large hands to shake.

   “Hey, I’ve heard a lot about you two,”  Hunk said pleasantly as he shook Shiro’s hand first.  Shiro was pretty sure that the heat in his face was not from being outside anymore, and he felt like a tongue-tied teenager again.

   “Pidge can only pick one person to talk to about friends and family at one time, apparently,” Matt snarked as his eyes narrowed at his sibling, who appeared unrepentant as they stuck their tongue out at him.  “Since the pigeon hasn’t said a word about you before to us, Pidge is paying for our ice cream.”  He declared.  Pidge wailed for a minute about how unfair that was, but eventually quieted down.  They did want ice cream, after all.

   “Okay, fine, fine,” They grumbled, and squinted over at Shiro, who was still tripping over his tongue.  “Three small soft serve vanilla cones, then.  One with rainbow sprinkles, and one with chocolate sprinkles.”  They declared.  When Matt and Shiro didn’t argue, Hunk nodded and turned to the machine.

   “Nothing on the last one?”  Hunk asked, just to make sure.  Pidge hummed a confirmation, as Hunk swirled the first cone up high.  When it was tall enough, Hunk grabbed a few napkins to wrap around the cone, and turned to face the trio and tentatively held the plain cone out towards Shiro.  Matt scooted forward to grab the cone, though, a pleased look on his face before he chomped down on the ice cream, about a fourth of it disappearing down his throat.  Shiro was still pretty impressed that Matt could manage to do that without getting an instant brain freeze, as Pidge was handed their cone with chocolate sprinkles.  They mimicked their older brother, pausing to shiver as they realized it was a bit too cold too fast.

   “And last, but not least,” Hunk said brightly as he turned, rainbow sprinkle encrusted cone in hand, and held it out towards Shiro with a dazzling smile.  A deer in headlights, Shiro froze, eyes wide, until Matt elbowed him harshly to get him to move.  Unthinkingly, Shiro reached out for the ice cream, not wanting to accidentally hit into Hunk’s hand, and grabbed a handful of sprinkles and soft serve vanilla, leaving the cone in Hunk’s hand.

   Shiro could hear Pidge and Matt howling with laughter, distantly, as though his brain was still trying to process just how badly he fucked up.  He had just...Picked up the ice cream.  He could never show his face in the cursed Carvel ever again.  Maybe that was why it was cursed - cursed to make a fool of himself in front of a really cute guy.  Who was blinking rapidly and looking increasingly like he was trying to stifle a few giggles that passed his pursed lips.

   “Y’know, most people aim for the cone, but…”  Hunk said conversationally, dumping the ruined cone into a bowl.  Shiro let out a strangled noise as Hunk gently took his hand (still holding the ice cream, rainbow sprinkles slowly dripping off his hand as the ice cream melted), and shook the worst of it off of his hand, over the bowl.  Hunk then shoved a handful of napkins into Shiro’s hand, and gently tugged Shiro until his hand was over the open lid of a trash can.

   “S-sh-shir-oh!” Matt was having trouble forming a sentence as he laughed, leaning against Pidge and nearly knocking their ice cream out of their hand.  Pidge shoved him hard, protecting their precious ice cream, straight into Shiro’s back.  Who smeared ice cream all over Hunk’s arm.  If Shiro could melt into the floor, like the sprinkles on the floor were trying to, he would’ve.  Hunk started laughing at that, though, confusing the shit out of Shiro as he wiped the ice cream off his hand.

   “Well, I was gonna say that ice cream was on me, but I didn’t think literally,” Hunk snickered as he dropped the dirty napkins into the garbage.  A few bounced off of Shiro’s hand, which was still covered in melted ice cream, and Hunk leaned against the counter for a second with a thoughtful expression as Shiro haphazardly swiped at the sticky mess in his hand.  Hunk clicked his tongue a few times, glancing at Pidge, who was giving him a ton of encouraging looks.  He took a deep breath as Shiro cleaned his hand off (mostly - there were a few ice cream stains and rainbow sprinkles stuck to the edge of his shirt sleeve), and gave Shiro his most winning smile.

   “How about the next ice cream is on me?  Just the two of us?”  He asked hopefully.  Shiro blinked at him, and looked over his shoulder to make sure that Hunk was  _ asking him. _  Pidge was bouncing on the balls of their feet, and mouthing ‘go for it’, and Matt was too far away for Hunk to have been asking him.

   “With me?”  Shiro asked, just to clarify.  Hunk nodded a few times, twisting a few napkins that he hadn’t given to Shiro anxiously.  “I...Sure,” Shiro said lamely, as he rubbed at the back of his neck, letting out a weird noise as his still-sticky hand got stuck in the short hair of his undercut.  Hunk positively beamed, though his smile was dimmed as several other people stepped into the shop.  He quickly wrote down his number on a napkin, as Pidge slipped Matt’s debit card onto the counter, and pressed it into Shiro’s hand.

   “I get out at 4, you can like...Text me later, and we’ll set something up, okay?”  Hunk asked hopefully as he ran Matt’s card through for the two cones, and handed it back to Pidge.  

   “Don’t worry about that,” Pidge butted in, tucking Matt’s card back into their pocket, and smiling wickedly.  “I’ll make sure that Shiro gets back to you later.”

   Shiro nodded as Pidge dragged him and Matt from the shop, only slowing down for a second to wave at Hunk as he was forced out the door.  Hunk waved back, before turning his attention to the new customers, shoving the bowl with Shiro’s ruined cone behind the counter near himself.

   “Hey guys, where’s my card?”  Matt asked as he patted at his pockets in confusion.  Pidge just snickered and munched on their cone, as Shiro chuckled as he looked at napkin with Hunk’s number on it in the palm of his prosthetic, and he wondered just what kind of ice cream Hunk liked best.


End file.
